University of Michigan Installs Another AutoAuditorium System

The University of Michigan at Flint has added
a second
AutoAuditorium System,
next door to the one they installed in 2006.
It is a key component of their Cyber Classrooms
which combine traditional classroom instruction with distance learning.
Students of courses taught in those rooms can choose to
attend each class session in-person
or watch a video of it
or both
as their daily circumstances require.
A 2008 paper documented how the blending of in-class and on-line attendance
resulted in better grades and fewer failures.*

The AutoAuditorium System automatically creates
a very watchable multi-camera video program
of the instruction given in the Cyber Classrooms in real time.
Each recording is available on the department's website
10 minutes after the end of the class.

Originally seen as an "added feature" of the Computer Science curriculum,
the recordings are now an essential aspect of the instruction.
This became clear when a course was going to be taught in two sections.
The students who were not going to be in the Cyber Classroom
complained that they would be at a disadvantage
without recordings of their section.

Department Chair Chris Pearson says,
"Our graduate program depends on the ability of the students to
take the classes locally or remotely.
Our student population includes many people whose responsibilities
may interfere with regular class attendance.
They could not succeed without our recordings
of the AutoAuditorium video stream.
We had to put in a second Cyber Classroom to accommodate our
graduate program's growth."
This semester the original Cyber Classroom is scheduled four days a week.
Three of those days it is in use from 8am until 8:30pm.
A total of 22 class sessions, running from 1¼ to 2½ hours in length,
are recorded there each week.
An additional six class sessions are scheduled in the new room.

Foveal Systems LLC of Madison New Jersey develops and markets the
AutoAuditorium System.
"AutoAuditorium" is a trademark of Telcordia
Technologies used under license.

Where does the name
FOVEAL
come from?
The fovea is the most sensitive part of the eye,
where we see with the greatest clarity.
Foveal Systems' products are based on computer vision technology,
so . . .